The web will kill them all: new media, digital utopia, and political struggle in the Italian 5-Star Movement (original) (raw)
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This article responds to current critiques about the myths of digital democracy drawing on the case study of the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle/5 Star Movement (5SM) lead by comedian- turned-politician Beppe Grillo. We argue that the political success of the 5SM was largely dependent on a process of technological fetishism of the Net as an autonomous political agent. We also contend that this process has enabled the party leaders to build an ideology of the movement and represent the 5SM as a grassroots movement based on horizontal networks, participatory democracy, and characterized by the absence of leadership. Conversely, we claim that the digital rhetoric of horizontality, lack of leadership and spontaneity of the party is used to mask, facilitate and reinforce the authority of Beppe Grillo as political leader, thus forging a new type of authoritarianism that is supported and legitimated through the everyday construction of digital discourse.
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In the Italian national elections in 2013, the Movimento Cinque Stelle (Five-Star Movement, abbreviated 'M5S'), founded just four years before, gained the 25% of votes becoming the most voted party. Analyses and interpretations have been divided between those who consider M5S one of many members of the family of European populism and those who underline how M5S's propositions are akin to the set of values associated with the Left and social movements. The debate on the M5S fits into the context of important ongoing trends in European politics: the growth of populist political movements; the emergence of outsider parties able to challenge stable political systems; changing relationships between parties and social movements; changes in the forms of political organizing. This article aims to contribute to the analysis of these phenomena by examining the case of M5S. The political and cultural nature of this party is investigated by: 1) analyzing its discourse on democracy, its organizational choices and its main issues; 2) comparing these elements with populism and the Left; 3) linking its fundamental characteristics to some central processes of contemporary economy, usually termed 'digital capitalism'.
Internet Histories, 2018
The 5-star Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle, M5S) is a political party in Italy operating almost exclusively online. It was officially established as a political movement in 2009, and quickly became the second most important political force in Italy. Unlike traditional political parties, the Movement operates almost exclusively online, without any headquarters and non-digital types of communication (until recently, candidates were forbidden to give interviews on TV or to the press); Beppe Grillo's blog (www.beppegrillo.it), used as an aggregator by early activists, is now the main “spokesperson” of the party; it is not just a tool of communication that replaces traditional party newspapers, but an integral part of the party's life and of its history. This research will first give an overview of the relation between the 5-Star Movement and the World Wide Web, particularly the blog. In second instance, through a deeper analysis of the blog posts from 2008 until the end of 2017, the paper will try to determine what is the main political discourse underlying the M5S on two key “ideological issues”: migration and the European Union, and how the party's positions have evolved over the years.
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Digital technologies have been considered as generating new opportuni- ties to enhance democratic politics. However, political parties have generally been latecomers in appropriating digital media in their every day life. The case of the Ital- ian Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) represents an interesting example of innovative use of digital technologies in politics. Adopting a mixed-method research design, this article contrasts the democratic vision of the M5S with its online participatory plat- form. First, the discursive production of its leaders on democracy is analysed and complemented with an examination of a law proposal focusing on direct democracy. The core elements of the M5S’ democratic conception are identified in a criticism of representative democracy and the elaboration of a cyberutopian narrative. Sec- ond, the concrete realization of democratic ideals through online instruments of par- ticipation is taken into consideration. Sixty-five online ballots and 326 discussions of draft laws that took place on the Rousseau platform between 2012 and 2017 are critically inspected and discussed, singling out explanations of a continuing decline in participation over time.
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Research on ICT and the public discourse often focuses on how ICT can be used to increase citizen participation in political decision-making processes. The Italian Five Star Movement (5SM) represents a novel approach to using ICT to include citizens, and a big challenge for the traditional political actors. The 5SM was initiated outside the established political systems, with the use of Internet tools as cornerstones to promote political actions based on the directly expressed will of citizens. In this paper, based on an exploratory case study approach and informed by the introduction of E-Democracy models, we investigate the role of ICT in various phases of the 5SM, from its birth through the current stage. The focus here is on the transformation from a protest organisation outside the established political processes to being the second most voted party within the Italian parliament.
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With the rapid diffusion of Social Media, grassroots political organizations are starting to use supportive technologies to avoid party representation. The Pirate Party in Germany and the Five Stars Movement (5SM) in Italy are trying to use the interactive democracy paradigm to renew the institutional framework of political representation from the bottom up. This paper aims to analyse the case of Beppe Grillo and 5SM that-after a successful showing in administrative elections-has been involved-for the first time-in a national election (2013). How the 5SM-as a virtual party without a structured organization-will solve the problems related to its institutionalization and how the "proxy vote" will be used in parliament are the main questions, which scholars are debating. It is a unique occasion to see if this emerging model of a political form will evolve into a democratic rather than a cybercratic organization.
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The Five Star Movement led by Grillo & Casaleggio had an unexpected success in the Italian general elections of February 2013, deeply disrupting the panorama of Italian politics. This book seeks to explore some of the features characterising the emergence of a new political phenomenon: digital populism. We asked Italian and English thinkers from different political and disciplinary backgrounds to contribute to an analysis of some fundamental points behind the rise of populism and the digital relations between masses, power and democracy at the dawn of the twenty-first century. This is the result of nine interviews carried out between May 2013 and February 2014 with Luciana Parisi, Tiziana Terranova, Lapo Berti, Simon Choat, Godani Paul, Saul Newman, Jussi Parikka, Tony D. Sampson and Alberto Toscano.